Richard Clarke: A vote for John McCain is a vote for Osama Bin Laden

by: Salaam

Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 08:38:29 AM EDT

Salaam writes: Richard Clarke, former National Security Council national coordinator for security and counterterrorism, writes on the history of Al Qaeda attempting to manipulate elections in Europe and the US with well-timed attacks and videos. He then concludes that for the current US election:

At the very least, expect another Halloween video from the scary man in the cave.

What would be the purpose of any attempted manipulation of the U.S. election? It could just be to use the election to magnify the media coverage of their terrorist activities, make al Qaeda look even more capable than it is, and remind everyone they are still around. Such a media-amplified attack might help them with recruitment and fundraising. Even more likely is the possibility that al Qaeda would hope the attack would benefit John McCain. Opinion polls, which, as noted above, al Qaeda reads closely, suggest that an attack would help McCain. Polls in Europe and the Middle East also suggest an overwhelming popular support there for Barack Obama. Al Qaeda would not like it if there were a popular American president again.

Story here.

h/t Fatemeh

Salaam :: Richard Clarke: A vote for John McCain is a vote for Osama Bin Laden